Hi there Lazzer, I tried that a few times.Marvel Bios does not come up at all.Looks like Marvel is a no-go on this board

Thanks soooo much for your help though,I really appreciate it

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Do you mean you never see the raid bios screen AT ALL? (see pic) Or you can't get into it using ctrl-l? If you don't see the screen at all, check the system bios again and tripple check that the Marvel controller is enabled and check for any options it may have such as the mode of opperation like IDE/SATA/ACHI/RAID/CompatibilityMode or anything of that nature. I have a Sabertooth x58 here and I'll will fire up and take a look at the options and see if there's anything we may have overlooked. I can give you more specific info that way.

Hi there Lazzer, I have not seen the raid bios screen at all.It surprises me also as the options I see are only IDE/SATA/ACHI.Nothing else..And the Marvel controller is enabled.
This is becoming too weird.

Different controllers/boards handle things differently. I've seen some controllers hand the ports over to the system bios when the mode is set to sata or achi. In this case, the drives would be detected by the system bios like the other ports are. When set to raid mode, the raid bios is enabled and handles the drive detection and also the configuration screen (ctrl-m) becomes active. That is where you would configure the drives. I've seen raid controllers that require you to create an array even though it's single physical drive. That array then becomes a virtual drive and shows up in Windows as a single disk that can be partitioned and formated like any other drive.

What's strange is that your not seeing the setup screen during post even though the marvel controller is enabled in the bios. It looks like it's not even a raid controller so set it to ACHI for best performance. Like I mentioned, I have that board here but haven't had a free moment to fire it up. I might be able to get to it this evening and see if there's anything special about those ports that I'm missing.

Here's what I think are the screens your seeing. The first shows the Marvel in IDE mode. That would work fine and should be detecting the drive, set to achi for better performance though. The second screen has the option for full screen logo. Please disable it if you haven't done so already so you can see what's going on during post.

EDIT - As I read more into the manual, I found this page. It seems it does have raid function on the Marvel which is what I expected. Interestingly, the system bios only shows the options of sata, ide, or achi. Please set it to IDE or ACHI. ((I -think- if it's in sata mode, they mean raid mode, and it will require you to enter the marvel bios (ctrl-m) and configure it as a raid member before it'll show in the system bios or windows.)) so... Set it to ACHI, forget all this ctrl-m stuff, reboot, see if it shows in the system bios.

Hi Lazzer,sorry for the delay,been working 12hour days so couldn't do as you said.However I have just tried it...in ACHI mode,the only sata drive shown is the dvd drive in sata 3Gb/s.I also set it to raid mode (surprise surprise,im sure i did not see it before!) after failure with ACHI mode and the bios doesnt show any drives at all,ctrl m shows no marvel bios too.Thought i'd try both in case i am missing something.

In raid mode the marvel bios should show up. I haven't had an opportunity to fire up my sabertooth x58 board. It's been getting busy at the shop lately. I don't have any other suggestions right now. When the marvel is enabled in any mode it sort of just works. The dvd drive, is it on the non-marvel ports?

I'll try again tomorrow but I am sure I tried getting into the marvel bios after I set up raid mode.I'll try everything thoroughly and reinstall marvel drivers etc just to make sure every base has been covered again.The dvd drive is on a non-marvel port,the sata 3gb/s.
Btw...does the drives in the marvel ports have to be in raid mode?I just want to use the full 6gb/s for both the SSD 240GB (boot drive) and raptor drive 300GB as secondary.Unequal drives too,I read you need similar drives for raid mode.I ran a SSD and raptor on my Core 2 Duo system with Sata 2 and setting that up as primary and second seems so easy in a non-raid mode.This is more complex.
Also I was wondering (my very lack of knowledge brain at work here)..if I have two drives in Raid,would I need another drive for booting?Which if I did,that boot drive would need to run in Sata 3gb/s...
Correct me if I am wrong on anything.

Yup I did with both..One PSU had a 4 pin and the other PSU had a 6 pin.Plugged them in as there was no 8 pin connector.Does it matter that there was no 8 pin?

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The only 6 pin plug is for PCI-E video cards, and they are wired differently from 4-pin/8-pin EPS plugs, which may explain why your PSU is also shutting down (short protection). I hope you didn't fry anything on the motherboard.

I'll try again tomorrow but I am sure I tried getting into the marvel bios after I set up raid mode.I'll try everything thoroughly and reinstall marvel drivers etc just to make sure every base has been covered again.The dvd drive is on a non-marvel port,the sata 3gb/s.
Btw...does the drives in the marvel ports have to be in raid mode?I just want to use the full 6gb/s for both the SSD 240GB (boot drive) and raptor drive 300GB as secondary.Unequal drives too,I read you need similar drives for raid mode.I ran a SSD and raptor on my Core 2 Duo system with Sata 2 and setting that up as primary and second seems so easy in a non-raid mode.This is more complex.
Also I was wondering (my very lack of knowledge brain at work here)..if I have two drives in Raid,would I need another drive for booting?Which if I did,that boot drive would need to run in Sata 3gb/s...
Correct me if I am wrong on anything.

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The drive(s) on the marvel ports don't have to be in a raid configuration to operate at 6gbs. Some raid controllers allow you to run single drives even with the controller set to raid mode. I think Marvel is one of them. If you do set up a raid array(stripe or mirror), the drives should match.

There's two that Google showed me as top results... 3.235 seconds of work shows there is guides out there....

The hard part, for some people, is actually using Google to search for them it appears.

Installing OS/software and other such things isn't the hard part either. Even since Vista, the OS finds most of what you need/updates it for you from the installation phase... if youre too lazy to find them yourself, that is.

There's two that Google showed me as top results... 3.235 seconds of work shows there is guides out there....

The hard part, for some people, is actually using Google to search for them it appears.

Installing OS/software and other such things isn't the hard part either. Even since Vista, the OS finds most of what you need/updates it for you from the installation phase... if youre too lazy to find them yourself, that is.

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I said quickly and easily. Sure, there are guides the equivalent to reading a book. That's not quick and easy. The second link you posted does not even remotely give enough information. The first link has some good info, but it is certainly not comprehensive.

With the amount of posting you've done on this board in the 5 days you've been a member I'm pretty sure you'd do just fine reading the information presented in one of those links I found with a short search....... certainly so seeing as you've wrote at least one book in your short time here.... right?

Knowledge usually doesn't come easily, quickly or freely.... you gotta put some time and effort in to acquire it and if you don't have to do that it usually isn't worth getting in the first place.

With the amount of posting you've done on this board in the 5 days you've been a member I'm pretty sure you'd do just fine reading the information presented in one of those links I found with a short search....... certainly so seeing as you've wrote at least one book in your short time here.... right?

Knowledge usually doesn't come easily, quickly or freely.... you gotta put some time and effort in to acquire it and if you don't have to do that it usually isn't worth getting in the first place.

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nah, most of those posts were on the first day directly related to my PC build.
p.s. I'm actually planning on writing a real book here soon. Not about PCs though. Probably fiction.

I said quickly and easily. Sure, there are guides the equivalent to reading a book. That's not quick and easy. The second link you posted does not even remotely give enough information. The first link has some good info, but it is certainly not comprehensive.

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Wait what not enough information? Not comprehensive? The Techreport link was quite excellent, and I just looked at the pictures. It clearly showed how to assemble a PC properly. Toms even have pretty good GPU buying guides.

Assembly is one thing, configuration is another. Manuals can be vegue. There's no harm asking for help. I don't have any issues offering advice that may benefit someone. We weren't born knowing how to build a system and we've ALL asked for help at one time or another and we've ALL had that one guy dropping links on us when it'd be just as fast to answer the question. Don't you hate that guy? ug... "That guy". Everyone knows "That guy".

assembly is one thing, configuration is another. Manuals can be vague. There's no harm asking for help. I don't have any issues offering advice that may benefit someone. We weren't born knowing how to build a system and we've all asked for help at one time or another and we've all had that one guy dropping links on us when it'd be just as fast to answer the question. Don't you hate that guy? Ug... "that guy". Everyone knows "that guy".